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DC Database talk:Comic Template
I have changed our 'ideal' comic cover image size, from 350 pixels wide, to 300 pixels. The reasoning for this change was the introduction of about 50 pixels of advertising on the right hand side of every page. --> Does anyone disagree with this change, or does it seem to better fit the new size of our pages? Cheers, --JamieHari 19:57, 19 November 2006 (UTC) Naming Conventions As many will soon see, the new comic template is going to alter the way we name comic title pages. To format things correctly, all comic titles will need to be moved to reflect the current format. Individual issue page names remain the same. Comic title pages should be created using the following naming convention: Comics:Title Vol # Example: Comics:52 Vol 1 (Take note that there is no space between the colon and the comic title) See Naming Conventions discussion at the MDP for more details. --Brian Kurtz 20:35, 23 April 2007 (UTC) Tips for Editors The current template includes a field which automatically generates an appearances category for listed characters. This category is distinctive from the Appearances page, as it lists appearances alpha-numerically rather than chronogically. Also, the categories do not allow for special qualifiers such as cameo appearance, behind-the-scenes, etc. The benefit of these categories is to give users a quick-find guide for issues that a certain character may appear in. Naming Convention Here's where it gets tricky Because these are category pages and not article pages, they cannot be moved, renamed, or otherwise altered. When adding the name of a character to the "Cast" field, the value should be the same as whatever identity the character is either currently using, or is otherwise best known by. For example, if Dick Grayson appears in an old issue of Batman, his value in the Cast field should be "Richard Grayson (New Earth)", regardless of whether he was actually using the alias the New Earth or Earth-One version in that issue or not. We want to eliminate the need for creating multiple appearances categories for the same person. Some characters have been through so many name variations, that it is best to refer to them by their actual name, such as Donna Troy. These instances should be rare, and hopefully, kept to a minimum. All parallel reality counterparts to mainstream characters should be identified by their real-name, followed by their reality designation in paranthesis. Example: Kal-El (Earth-Two). Mainstream counterparts to these characters should have the same category name as their article page names. Bruce Wayne (New Earth), Kal-El (New Earth), etc. Characters who change their identity from this point forward presents a real problem, however. See the discussion page at the Marvel Database Project for more info. --Brian Kurtz 21:00, 25 April 2007 (UTC) :modified by Roygbiv666 22:35, 6 March 2008 (UTC) Exceptions: :*Renée Montoya: Although she is now adopting the identity of the Question, Renee is more universally known by her real name (note the accent). I am creating her appearances category as Category:Renée Montoya/Appearances. More Tips Currently, the new template allows for five additional stories following the main story. Attempting to add any back-up features beyond six will not be viewable on the main page. While additional stories can certainly be added to the template, this would unfortunately create an even larger white space between the Synopsis and Notes sections of the article, which would look rather unattractive. For comic issues that include more than six stories (mostly Golden Age stuff), I would recommend using the old comic template (provided below). Make changes, exitions as needed. Hopefully, a more user-friendly solution to this will present itself in the future. --Brian Kurtz 16:53, 1 May 2007 (UTC) Old Template Summary Volume: Volume unknown Issue: Issue unknown Month: Month of first print unknown Year: Year of first print unknown Credits Editor in Chief: Editor in Chief unknown Head Writer: Head writer unknown Writers: Writers unknown Cover Artists: Cover artists unknown Pencilers: Pencilers unknown Inkers: Inkers unknown Colourists: Colourists unknown Letterers: Letterers unknown Editors: Editors unknown Synopsis Cast of Characters: * Locations: * Items: * First Appearances: No first appearances Final Appearances: No final appearances Synopsis: Synopsis not yet written Story Title 2 Story subtitle Credits Head Writer: Head writer unknown Writers: Writers unknown Pencilers: Pencilers unknown Inkers: Inkers unknown Colourists: Colourists unknown Letterers: Letterers unknown Editors: Editors unknown Synopsis Cast of Characters: * Locations: * Items: * First Appearances: No first appearances Final Appearances: No final appearances Synopsis: Synopsis not yet written Story Title 3 Story subtitle Credits Head Writer: Head writer unknown Writers: Writers unknown Pencilers: Pencilers unknown Inkers: Inkers unknown Colourists: Colourists unknown Letterers: Letterers unknown Editors: Editors unknown Synopsis Cast of Characters: * Locations: * Items: * First Appearances: No first appearances Final Appearances: No final appearances Synopsis: Synopsis not yet written Story Title 4 Story subtitle Credits Head Writer: Head writer unknown Writers: Writers unknown Pencilers: Pencilers unknown Inkers: Inkers unknown Colourists: Colourists unknown Letterers: Letterers unknown Editors: Editors unknown Synopsis Cast of Characters: * Locations: * Items: * First Appearances: No first appearances Final Appearances: No final appearances Synopsis: Synopsis not yet written Notes * No special notes. Trivia * Recommended Readings * Related Articles * External Links * References * ---- Category:Comics Categories for minor characters So far, for minor throwaway characters that don't appear outside a handful of issues, I haven't bothered putting them in the Cast# fields to create an appearance category for them, even if they have their own character page. Any thoughts on this? Am I correct, or should we be giving everyone a category, no matter how minor? -Profzoom 20:04, 30 May 2007 (UTC) :I'd ask this in the forums to get a wider audience, but my person opinion is include them in the cast variables, if they have their own articles. :If they are 'joe #1' with no article, of course they can be left out... :Caveat: I LOVE data. The more, the better. :Database space is free... it's only a matter of whether editors are willing to do it. :Originally, there was a lot of discussion whether eye-colour categories were too much effort. :) :Let's discuss it more on the forums. :--Jamie 01:01, 31 May 2007 (UTC) Template Format Now that it's too late, is there any way to put the synopsis before the cast? Does anyone really want to see a multi-screen list of people before the synopsis? :--Roygbiv666 12:22, 26 July 2007 (UTC) :I don't believe it is too late at all... :Could you repeat this question on the forums to build a discussion about this? (If you haven't already) :If we change it, I would like to change it on both MDP and DCDP. :) :--Jamie 13:13, 26 July 2007 (UTC) Adding Event Information I tried doing this myself, but I'm reverse engineering code that doesn't seem to like spacing things in sections ... Anyway, would anyone be able to set up a test template to add Event information? I almost got this to work, but lost track of the }}} parts. you kids today, with your non-FORTRAN code - crazy! Ideally, I'd want to have the Comic Template updated with a field like this: | EventName = FILL IN ANY EVENT THIS ISSUE IS A PART OF That auto-categorizes that comic in "Category:EventName". That way all issues are listed in one place (albeit alphabetically). Would it then be possible to maybe auto-populate the "EventName" into Recommended Readings? And if that EVENTNAME is filled in, then immediately below the "Previous Issue"/"Next Issue" fields displayed in the InfoBox are these: | Prev Event Issue = LINK TO THE LAST ISSUE IN THE EVENT (IF NOT PART OF SAME COMIC TITLE) | Next Event Issue = LINK TO THE LAST ISSUE IN THE EVENT (IF NOT PART OF SAME COMIC TITLE) Since some Events go from title to title (See the Sinestro Corps War for an example). Does this make sense? --Roygbiv666 14:53, 1 February 2008 (UTC) ::Makes sense to me. Though I'm certainly not the one who would be able to help with this. Whenever I try to do something involving code I get attacked by the Flying Monkeys. Seriously. It's friggin' weird. They fling poo. ::On that same note... mebbe there's a way we can add another auto-nav option to comic pages. Specifically, Superman issues that used that secondary triangle numbering system from a few years back. That way, we can direct users from the prev/next issues of the corresponding title, as well as the prev/next issues in the Superman continuity line. Thus far, I've been using the old school nav box for this. --Brian Kurtz 02:32, 6 February 2008 (UTC) :::That's why it's kind of frustrating - I have a vague idea, but lack the knowledge to code the stuff. If the code had better/more spacing I could probably figure it out. --Roygbiv666 02:53, 6 February 2008 (UTC) ::::Definitely possible. This code isn't all that easy to design, but almost anything can be done. I do have a couple questions on how it would come together: ::::#Are you planning on having multiple events in the same block? Like would the EventName field have a bunch of events in it? ::::#Would having a link in the Recommended Reading to the Event Category be ok instead of listing the individual pages? ::::#Previous and Next would really be trickier to make happen automatically, especially if the pages are listed alphabetically in the Category. If we listed them by release date, that would put them in chronological order, which might make things easier as far as automatic previous and next. Otherwise, they'd just have to be fields that people entered the next and previous manually. ::::I'd also like to see what you had when you almost had it working. I can't promise anything, (timelines as well), but I'm about 90% sure I could make this happen. :) ::::--Your Friendly Neighborhood Peteparker (talk • • ) 22:19, 7 March 2008 (UTC) :::::Apparently, I have an example here - it looks right, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't. At any rate, I just see an extra line with the previous/next issues of an event. They would have to be manually entered, because some events jump around between titles (See Sinestro Corps War for an example). Ideally, I'd want to fill out the individual comics via the template and automagically have an Event page made with some kind of automagic connection to all the comics part of the event. I guess that would require DPL though. :::::I don't think there would be comics part of multiple events. :::::Not sure what you mean about the Recommend Reading aspect of it. On the Event page, I would ideally want to have synopses of each individual issue. See this for an example. Again, it would be nice to be able to automate that, so that by creating the individual comics/synopses/bread-crumb-trail-of-comics-in-the-event creates the Event page, but hardly required. I think I made a template that could be put in each issue of an event, but it seems redundant. :::::Thanks for all help. All of the silly DC versus Marvel fanboy stuff shouldn't keep us from working together on things. We're all comic nerds, right? Roygbiv666 23:57, 7 March 2008 (UTC) Previous/Next Issue? Am I missing something? When I hit the "Insert comic template" when creating new pages, there isn't a section for Previous/Next Issue anymore. Do we have to manually input this now? No biggie, just wondering. GeorgeMcBain 03:13, 30 September 2008 (UTC) :The Previous and Next are now optional fields, meaning they will be automatically filled in by the template for one minus and one plus the current issue. You are still able to override the Previous and Next Issues for those situations like Issue #1000000, where the previous was like 468 and the next was 469. :— Nathan (Peteparker) (Earth-1218) (talk • • ) 19:25, 30 September 2008 (UTC) Previous/Next I love that we don't have to type these things in anymore. But can we add them back to the standard options anyway, so they appear when I click the little button on top of the editing space? I think seasoned editors will know enough to just delete it when useful, and I would rather erase it everytime I didn't need it then have to add it in every time I do (which is a lot of times). It's particularly important for last issues, one-shots, and weird issues. And... there are a lot of those at DC. :- Billy Arrowsmith (Talk), 16:13, 22 October 2008 (UTC) Multiple story lines Is anyone else noticing multiple synopsis lines in the template recently? -- SFH 22:52, 18 February 2009 (UTC) ::Yeah. I brought it up on the forums, and it looks like Nathan just took care of it with his powers, which I can only assume are magical in nature. :::- Billy Arrowsmith (Talk), 02:15, 19 February 2009 (UTC) 1000 Character Limit problem I'm sure everyone is noticing about that "Error: String exceeds 1,000 character limit" crap that has been bugging the site. Is there any way to get rid of this???--Drgyen 05:04, February 3, 2011 (UTC) :Yeah, if Wikia changes the extensions back. -- [[User:Tupka217|Tupka]][[User talk:Tupka217|''217]] 14:25, February 3, 2011 (UTC) :to be honest, I haven't a clue of what this limit is, and what it is use for.--Drgyen 22:22, February 3, 2011 (UTC) ::I's explained better at the forum: https://forums.dcdatabaseproject.com/viewtopic.php?f=79&t=2126&sid=9a448f556950d647d820e4cd9518bd54 -- '[[User:Tupka217|Tupka']][[User talk:Tupka217|217]] 22:27, February 3, 2011 (UTC) Solicitation I thinking of adding a solicitation for the comic template as there are some comic pages with solicits and it been done before on the Marvel Wiki. What do you guys think?--Drgyen 04:48, March 2, 2011 (UTC) How Big is Too Big? It looks like our maximum number of stories right now is 50 in the template. I'm currently writing up which is certainly an outlier but has 74 unique stories. Does it make sense to double the amount of stories in the template? I mean I can't think of another good solution here but also it seems weird to add that much code to the template when most of it is only gonna be used by maybe one page. - Billy Arrowsmith (Talk), 07:28, June 7, 2019 (UTC) :It's way easier to expand the number for StoryTitle/Synopsis/Credits/etc than one would think. It just takes a bit of time and I'm not sure I have it this weekend. As for "too much"... there's currently room for 104 alternate covers.--[[User:Tupka217|'Tupka']][[Message wall:Tupka217|''217]] 07:34, June 7, 2019 (UTC)